News & Notes from Across Southern Orange County For The Week of 9/16
We tackle Woodbury's disinformation superspreaders (again), the latest on South Blooming Grove's Sabbath Sirens, and the Rotten Egg smell in Monroe. All this and more in your local news round-up.
Above: Yes. These Jackasses (John U. Keleman on the left, and Tyler Etzel Jr. on the right) are back with more disinformation for Woodbury residents. We’ll debunk this claim in just a moment. But first …
Why do I call them jackasses? I can call them jackasses because anyone who comes to your door and straight-up lies to you, as seen here with Mr. Etzel, is a jackass.
There is no excuse, anywhere in America, to come to someone’s home and lie to them. None. I will not tolerate that, and you shouldn’t either. It’s wrong. It’s not ok. And I don’t care what office you’re running for or what political party you belong to; after the shared trauma of the pandemic we just lived through, that behavior should be disqualifying.
(So, for that matter, should be assaulting a disabled teenager after you were asked to put on a mask. Every Woodbury resident should demand Councilman Brandon Calore resign from office for that action alone.)
Lying politicians are older than our Republic, but after 315,000+ of your friends, family, and neighbors died explicitly because of disinformation spread by politicians like Etzel and Keleman, those days are over.
It’s a disservice to the memory of our friends, families, and neighbors who died from COIVD-19 disinformation to tolerate this sort of behavior from any politician — or in the case of Mr. Joel Stern and Isaac Ekstein in South Blooming Grove, municipal employees. Tell the truth, or don’t run for office. Tell the truth, or don’t serve as a municipal employee. Because The People have had enough, and we will not stand for it.
No more people are going to die on my watch from the bullshit spewed from any politician’s mouth, or their dumbass friends who want to enable them.
Where do we begin?
Ok. How about this: I am drowning in email and research that needs to be concluded to finish up some upcoming posts. For example, I need to give Governor Kathy Hochul time to respond to my questions before I can publish Part 2 of our post on her stonewalling.
So, here’s what I’m going to do today. I am going to, as quickly as possible, preview some of the upcoming stories I’m working on, and also try to address some others. There are things going on in Monroe, for example, that I just haven’t had time to chase up that should not go unremarked. For example:
At the September 16th Town of Monroe Board meeting, Supervisor Tony Cardone again lied to the public about the nature of the “contamination” at Well #4. You can see this happen at 43:53 in the above video.
Thankfully, Councilwoman Maureen Richardson and Councilwoman Mary Bingham fact-checked Cardone. But the fact that he again tried to lie to people, and is trying to engage the City of Kiryas Joel in a lawsuit that you will have to pay for under false pretenses is not something we can ignore.
Cardone’s time will come. But for now, let’s move on.
Below are the stories I am working on, or smaller stories that I didn’t want to escape unnoticed.
After this post, I will take a couple of days off from posting to focus on my research and reporting.
Because unlike our friends at Straus News, I make sure to fact check the claims made by our elected officials and their enablers.
So, let’s get to it:
Story 1: The Jackasses Continue Spreading Disinformation (Woodbury)
Claim 1: Keleman: “Nothing can be further from the truth.”
Mr. Keleman said this concerning the claim that he and Etzel support high density housing.
So, worth noting here is that fellow Woodbury Democrat, and Village Trustee, James Freiband, has already telegraphed Mr. Keleman and Mr. Etzel Jr.’s plan. Freiband was looking to disqualify Mr. Gerver as Planning Board Chair, if you recall.
The plan is to replace Mr. Gerver with Mr. Richard Cattagio, who is currently the subject of a New York State Division of Human Rights investigation. Mr. Cattagio was also booted from the Woodbury Planning Board after an investigation by The Monroe Gazette found that he, and former Woodbury Building Inspector Mike Panella, were providing favorable treatment to Haredi members of Highland Lake Estates at the detriment of secular residents. This, as we’ve pointed out repeatedly here, is a violation of both the New York State and federal Constitution’s Establishment Clause.
If Mr. Keleman would like to verify that he does not support high-density housing being built, he can sign a pledge committing to keeping Mr. Chris Gerver in place as Planning Board Chair. Unlike Mr. Cattagio, Mr. Gerver does not have a track record of intentionally making decisions that benefit my Haredi brothers and Sisters at the expense of Woodbury’s secular residents.
Etzel chimes in that high-density housing on the Falkirk Golf Course is “the last thing he wants to see,” but that’s the exact opposite of what Mr. Etzel stated at a 2022 meeting organized by Falkirk’s developer, Wayne Corts. Remember: Mr. Corts helped Mr. Etzel sell ACE Farms to Grand Rebbe Aaron Teitelbaum.
In 2025, ACE Farms will be available for annexation into the City of Kiryas Joel. Do you think it’s a coincidence that, on all of Mr. Cort’s properties, there are signs promoting Mr. Etzel’s campaign, and that Etzel is again running for office with this annexation looming?
I don’t.
Before we move on from Woodbury, I’d like to again recommend you join the Woodbury United Facebook group. Unlike some of the other groups, where they allow repeated false statements from Town Board members, none of that BS is tolerated in Woodbury United.
Here’s the latest example: Woodbury Town Councilwoman, Theresa Luongo, was out in another Woodbury Facebook group today saying I was “fired” from The Photo-News for somehow acting improperly. A slanderous comment, by the way.
And, a false one that can be verified right here. And also right here at 1:07:19:
Nobody in that other Facebook group bothered to fact-check Councilwoman Luongo.
NOBODY.
It’s further proof that this Woodbury Town Board is compromised of morally repugnant people. All of whom will do whatever it takes to blame anything, and anyone, under the Sun so that they don’t have to take responsibility for their actions.
That’s why I’m not in those Facebook Groups anymore, and you shouldn’t be either.
Over in Woodbury United, if you don’t bring the facts? You can get the fuck out.
Is the group perfect?
No.
Lately, there’s been an influx of these faux “Why can’t we be UNITED” people chiming in on behalf of the Town Board. Don’t listen to them, it’s the local equivalent of a 2020 Election Denier trying to distract people with an old rhetorical tactic best summed up by this image:
Many of these people, by the way, have hidden agendas; like the people on the library board who are desperately trying to get a $3M grant from Senator Skoufis, and need the assistance of the Town Board to make that grant happen.
Two of them have been very vocal in the Woodbury United group about their displeasure involving The Monroe Gazette. I can’t say I blame them. They’ve got three million reasons to spread disinformation about a reliable source for community news.
So, my job is to alert you to the bad-faith actors like Cathy Schmidt. You can join the group and call them out if you’d like.
I don’t bother. I block them and move on. Life is too short to waste it talking to dishonest people. From now on, that will be my policy with that group and others like it. I’m not going to respond to bullshit. I’m just going to block them and move on.
Speaking of …
Claim #2: Etzel - “The Village Refused to Take a Meeting”
This is 100% false.
Text messages shared with The Monroe Gazette confirm this, but since those texts were shared off the record, I’ve taken an additional investigative step. Specifically, I’ve FOIL’ed all communications between Mr. Etzel Jr. and Mr. Corts while Mr. Etzel Jr. was a Woodbury Town Councilman. I have also FOIL’ed all text messages sent by Mr. Corts to former Woodbury Supervisor, Thomas J. Burke, and the Woodbury Mayor, Andrew Giacomazza.
This way, I can show you the texts without breaking any confidentiality with my sources.
While we wait for Mr. Etzel Jr. to fulfill this FOIL request, if you see him come to your door and claim the Town/Village “refused to meet with Mr. Corts” you can ask him directly if he intends to comply with this FOIL request.
If the answer is no, you’ll know that — yet again — he’s lying right to your face with this claim.
The fact is, Mr. Corts scheduled meetings, and then cancelled them at the last minute blaming the developers he sold the property to for the cancellations.
I can’t factually state why Mr. Corts repeatedly cancelled or otherwise put off these meetings, but — and this is just my opinion — I think he was smart enough to figure out it makes for good politics to blame the Village for “not taking a meeting” to help his “good friend” Mr. Etzel Jr.
Either way, Mr. Etzel Jr. and Mr. Keleman are uniquely unqualified to hold public office, and I encourage you to ensure that they never do.
Make sure you are registered to vote by clicking here.
Make sure you request your early mail ballot by clicking here.
It’s time for change in Woodbury. All the bad actors need to go.
Story 2: Jay Westerveld’s Reign of Terror (Chester/Warwick)
I’ve enjoyed watching Mr. Westerveld spin out online.
First he tried to get Senator Skoufis, via a Facebook post in one of his groups, to somehow disavow the claim that Mr. Westerveld was working on behalf of Dorey Houle. That didn’t work. So now he’s taken to praising Mr. Timothy Mitts, Mr. Skoufis’s only real challenger, online to distance himself from Houle’s surefire loser of a campaign.
But if you think that Westerveld is having a meltdown now, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
That’s because I’ve dug deep into Mr. Westerveld’s long reign of terror against residents of Warwick, Chester, and now, Monroe.
I’ve also looked into his claim that he coined the term “greenwashing.” Given the track record of bogus claims and faux expertise disguised through a series of fake organizations, it’s not likely he coined that one either.
And for the record, The Monroe Gazette has requested an EIN number and the last three Form 990s from ALL of Mr. Westerveld’s faux charitable organizations.
At the time of this writing, not a single one has responded to this request, despite requirements under federal law to do so. All registered not-for-profit organizations are obligated to provide you with a Form 990 upon request.
Why is this a story?
Mr. Westerveld, like Mr. Richard Cattagio, is currently the subject of a Human Rights investigation for posting a litany of antisemitic remarks concerning the City of Kiryas Joel. This was done under one of his numerous fake Facebook profiles, which we documented his use of here.
He has also, for many years, published op-eds in the Warwick Advertiser and Chester’s The Chronicle (both Straus News publications) containing a litany of false statements about groups like Sustainable Warwick and the Chester Conservation Advisory Committee.
Straus News, at no point, has bothered to fact-check any of the claims made by Mr. Westerveld in the litany of op-eds that he wrote and published.
This includes personal attacks made by Westerveld on members of both groups, and in the case of Sustainable Warwick, blaming them for a lithium ion battery fire sustained in the Village not long ago.
Prior to that, Mr. Westerveld has provided false information to the DEC, which resulted in a stop work order being issued against a property that, after a DEC investigation, had to be lifted because of the bogus information he provided to them.
Mr. Westerveld has also feuded with the beloved environmental group, Riverkeeper, again with his brand of false information that the Times-Herald Record also did not bother to fact-check.
So, “Reign of Terror” is not an exaggeration.
Like Etzel Jr. and Keleman in Woodbury, Cardone in Monroe, and Stern and Ekstein in South Blooming Grove, Westerveld has been a purveyor of harmful disinformation and attacks on the communities they all claim to serve.
And at this point, you know how I feel about that shit.
In fact, there’s probably a hell of a lawsuit to be made against Straus News for allowing Mr. Westerveld a platform, without providing any sort of fact checking, to attack and terrorize entire communities in our region for decades.
What is an exaggeration is Mr. Westerveld’s repeated claims to be a guest lecturer at Columbia University and West Point.
After much research by both institutions, neither of them were able to find ANY evidence that Mr. Westerveld served as a guest lecturer there.
None.
Zero.
I know Mr. Westerveld has recently tried to pass off screenshots showing that he offered a hike once at Columbia University’s Business Extension school, and that might have happened, but he has claimed repeatedly in ALL of his bios — just Google him and you’ll see it for yourself, like this one here — that he is a visiting lecturer at West Point and Columbia.
That claim is absolutely not true according to both schools and in the case of one of those institutions, they explicitly mentioned Mr. Westerveld’s claims could result in some trouble with law enforcement should he continue saying otherwise.
Story 3: The Smell of Rotten Eggs in Monroe (South Blooming Grove & Monroe)
There are three environmental stories going on in Monroe. We touched on one already with Well #4. The second story involves the oil spill near Lake Mombasha that Dorey Houle, the liaison for the Village of Monroe, refused to notify the Village about. The DEC is currently looking into that situation and will provide information to The Monroe Gazette soon.
The third story involves the smell of rotten eggs that is frequently reported in and around Crane Park in the Village of Monroe. This has been an issue for some time, but the actions of Joel Stern, Isaac Ekstein, and friends in South Blooming Grove have made the situation way worse.
In short, South Blooming Grove has a system installed to help treat their sewage before it hits the Village of Monroe.
Mr. Stern and Mr. Ekstein refuse to turn the system on, because they don’t want to pay for the expense that comes with its operation.
Orange County, at the time of this writing, has not complied with FOIL requests on this situation.
Orange County, at the time of this writing, has also not replied to requests for comments on this situation, nor have they bothered to explain why they’ve allowed this situation between Monroe and South Blooming Grove to go on for as long as it has.
The Village of Monroe is currently drafting a legal letter to share with the Village of South Blooming Grove. After I hit publish, I will follow-up and see what the status of that letter is.
The Rotten Egg situation is no joke. In large enough amounts, Hydrogen Sulfide (which produces the smell) can be incredibly dangerous.
If you are an elderly resident of the Village of Monroe, or if you have upper-respiratory issues, you should absolutely go to the next Village of Monroe meeting and ask when the Village plans to take action against the Village of South Blooming Grove.
You should also contact County Executive Steve Neuhaus and ask him to explain why Orange County has taken years to get involved in this situation.
It’s one of those things that will get worse, not better, when you factor in the Village of Monroe’s aging sewer infrastructure and the capacity issues at Orange County Sewer District 1.
Story 4: EMS + Speed Traps + Sabbath Sirens (South Blooming Grove)
First, the bad news: I spoke with the Town of Blooming Grove Police Department, and they don’t want to get involved with the issues surrounding the Sabbath Sirens in South Blooming Grove.
As you can see from the photo above, those Sirens are placed WAY too close to people’s houses, and as the CDC has said, noise at over 85 dba can be harmful to people’s health. So, the next stop is the Orange County Department of Health, and we all know how “helpful” they’ve been.
According to the people I spoke with at the Town of Blooming Grove Police, they believe the only remedy available to South Blooming Grove residents is civil, either in the form of voting the current Village Board out of power — a process that begins next March — or through legal action.
When asked if they took a decibel reading of the Sabbath Sirens, no answer was provided.
When asked if the police were aware of the harmful effects of the high decibel levels of the Sirens, the Blooming Grove Police stated the issue was out of their hands.
Specifically, it was out of their hands because the Village passed a resolution that gave permission for the installation of the Sabbath Sirens. (Note: The Village of South Blooming Grove has repeatedly failed to provide a copy of this resolution to the public upon request and via FOIL.)
Because the resolution was passed, according to the police, the resolution overrides the noise ordinance in the Village and Town, taking enforcement action out of the hands of the police department.
I’ll follow-up on this, because I need to stop by the Town Police Department tomorrow to pick-up the FOIL documents concerning the Speed Tests Mr. Joel Stern decided to lie about. So, I’ll have more to share on the Sirens and the Speed Tests soon.
Until then, I did want to direct your attention to just one more thing …
Be on the lookout for a developing story concerning who provides Emergency Services in the Village of South Blooming Grove.
As you can see from the above screenshot on Ivelt.com, there’s a discussion taking place concerning when the license expires for South Blooming Grove’s current Emergency Service provider.
Like he did with Public Safety, and like he did with the Fire Department, you can fully expect Mr. Stern to propose the Village retain Mrs. Nora Murphy to investigate allowing his hate group to provide EMS services within the village.
(Mrs. Murphy, and Mr. Stern, have not complied with FOIL requests concerning the fire department and the proposed public safety division. Neither of them have replied to multiple requests for comment. Not to The Monroe Gazette, and not to News 12 either.)
When I brought up the situation involving the EMS to Town of Blooming Grove Supervisor Robert Jeroloman, he said:
I wanted to clarify that both the Village of South Blooming Grove and the Village of Washingtonville are within the Town-wide Ambulance District, which was created with State approval in 1988. Despite any announcements made by the Village of South Blooming Grove that may contradict this, they remain part of this legally established district.
The Town of Blooming Grove Ambulance Corps provides comprehensive emergency services, offering both Basic Life Support and Advanced Life Support by staffing EMTs and Paramedics.
At this time, I am unaware whether the UJC provides services equal to or better than those offered by the Town of Blooming Grove Ambulance Corps.
This is a developing story.
Think of this more as a heads-up right now than anything else.
Ok. One more developing story …
Story 5 - 8 Sylvan Trail Mountain Lodge Road / Awesome Realty Corporation (Blooming Grove)
This is something I was JUST made aware of. Essentially a home was illegally subdivided and being rented out, causing a nuisance on Mountain Lodge Road. Residents are bringing it up to the Town Board in Blooming Grove, and thus far, no action has taken place.
That doesn’t mean action is NOT going to happen, it just means right now residents in the area are deeply unhappy about this.
Another company, Awesome Realty, is owned by Abraham Malick and his wife, Sarah Schwartz. This company is alleged to have 50 units in the area. When one resident told the landlord, Mrs. Schwartz, that the unit had mold, Mrs. Schwartz threatened to dox the resident.
We’ll have more to report on Awesome Realty soon as they may be connected to an unregistered yeshiva or two in the area.
I just wanted to mention them here because people keep asking me about it in Blooming Grove.
Yes. I’m aware of them. Yes. I am investigating. Yes, I will have a story on it soon. And yes, I will ask them why they think threatening to dox a tenant over the tenant informing them of mold is an appropriate course of action.
My apologies to the people of Blooming Grove. I spend a lot of time covering South Blooming Grove, and stuff like this can slip through the cracks. But I’m on this story now. If you have further information you’d like to share about Awesome Realty, you can email me at BJMendelson@Duck.com
I’ll have more news, for all of you, soon. Give me a couple of days to do my reporting work, and we’ll talk again soon.